Roger Federer Out A Month After Undergoing Knee Surgery To Repair Torn Meniscus

by Tom Gainey | February 3rd, 2016, 8:47 am

131 Comments

The iron man of tennis Roger Federer will miss Rotterdam and his title defense in Dubai after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

According to a post he made on Facebook, Federer injured the knee the AFTER his semifinal loss at the Australian Open to Novak Djokovic.

“I want to inform you that yesterday I underwent arthroscopic surgery on my knee,” Federer posted on Facebook. “I injured my knee the day after the semi-finals in Australia. After getting tests done when I returned home, it was determined that I had torn my meniscus. I apologize to my friends in Rotterdam and Dubai, as I was very much looking forward to playing those events. While this is an unfortunate setback, I am encouraged and grateful that my doctor said the procedure was a success. I am looking forward to attacking the rehabilitation process this afternoon with my team and working hard to get back out on tour as soon as possible. Thanks for all your incredible support. I will check in with all of you soon.”

Since turning pro in the late 90s, Federer has rarely been off the tour for any extended period of time due to injury. Nor have we heard of him needing surgery. In his statement, he also did not give a timetable for return, but he is still entered in Indian Wells.

And at 34 there is greater cause for concern any time someone of that age is hurt.

131 Comments for Roger Federer Out A Month After Undergoing Knee Surgery To Repair Torn Meniscus

James Says:

Unfortunately, this could be career ending for Fed – especially at his age. this might be his last year on tour. He will probably return for the clay season and avoid hard courts in Indian Wells too – he has enough points to remain top 4 till wimbledon. returning on clay and then grass would be smarter. Hardly anyone comes back to full speed after even this type of knee surgery.

James, what are you talking about? Arthroscopic surgery is as routine as it gets for athletes nowadays. Look at how many NFL players are still running around with the same and worse surgeries.

Not only that, but Federer can afford the best doctors in the world. They either sewed up the tear or removed the meniscus all together. Either way, recovery shouldn’t be a big issue. A month or so of rehab and he’ll be fine. Far from career ending considering it’s not even season ending.

Fed will be fine. Considering his overall fitness level, age (possibly old for tennis but young overall), discipline with fitness routines which would carry over to any PT he has to do, and wealth to pay for the best doctors, he is going to bounce back fast.

Hmmh..i tend to agree with Ben..no active players who got multiple surgeries like rafa did,and he still running around albeit a little bit slower this days..and roger’s body way too healthy than rafa..so i would say he would lift a trophy sometime soon..

It depends on the degree of damage to the meniscus. From Federer’s message, it did not sound quite severe. If they did a repair, that means that they sutured the torn segments of the meniscus together. He should do well with proper rehabilitation. Bone-on-bone means the meniscus has been damaged so much that it can no longer be repaired. The pad afforded to the knees by the meniscus is no longer there, hence, bone on bone. This is the most severe form. It does not sound like this is what Federer had.

After reading this statement from a doctor on the subject, I would say that Federer will be careful and skip Indian Wells, no matter how good his doctors are. He still has a human body like all of us.

No second chances: A re-torn meniscus will not likely be salvaged. This means athletes have one chance to allow full healing. Tearing the meniscus again during the early stages of rehab destroys the chances of the structure ever fully healing.

A re-torn meniscus will not likely be salvaged. This means athletes have one chance to allow full healing. Tearing the meniscus again during the early stages of rehab destroys the chances of the structure ever fully healing.

1.No second chances: A re-torn meniscus will not likely be salvaged. This means athletes have one chance to allow full healing. Tearing the meniscus again during the early stages of rehab destroys the chances of the structure ever fully healing.

I think people are forgetting one huge factor in all of this. I have heard many basketball players like Derek Rose as one example, even Rafa has talked about the pyschological aspect of not feeling 100% confident about the knee even after it has healed. Pyschologically getting over that and being able to trust your knee 100 percent of the time during a match and not have to worry about it. This is something that takes time after the physical healing process is finished. It’s easy to doubt any part of your body after a surgery or a break of a bone. Anything that happens to the body, takes time to trust it again.

Famous Skier Pirmin Zurbriggen had the same injury back in 1985. He had laser operation and in 9 days or 10 he went to win Kitzbühel on 11 January and then again on 12 Jaunary. He was 22 but with today medicine i think Roger will be perfectly fine in less then 20 days.

Thanks, Nikola. That was a freakish accident after crossing the finish line in Kitzbuhel. I met Pirmin Zubriggen in Las Lenas, Argentina. Summer training season Aug. 1991 when the Swiss team was training there. I spent an afternoon free skiing with them – thrill of my life! My 15 minutes of fame. :)

Federinas/tards reporting.
Kids been knocking Dad about?
This is worrying because indeed, it might be the beginning of the end, and being realistic, the end has been proceeding gently over the past few seasons. Roger has been injured or ill on several occasions (I’ve never ascribed to him being otherwise) and he’s played through many forms of discomfort out of commitment to the tournaments and the fans, respect for opponents who quite frankly don’t enjoy winning a match through retirement, and through love of the game and of course, pride.
In the grand scheme of things when people around us are falling prey to all manner of awful occurrences it doesn’t seem that important but I do feel sorry for the fans and I feel sorry for me, madmax, skeezer and the rest as we’ll miss Roger’s fabulous shot making and remarkable movement. I hope Rog doesn’t come back so early that there could be detriment to his game.

Best of luck Roger with the surgery,and the recovery,given that he plays such an effortless style of tennis,hopefully he will be fine,i doubt its career threatening,as Tom Gainey said other players came back successfully after their surgeries,so i wouldnt think Federer will be any different,GOOD LUCK FEDERER….

Best wishes for Roger’s recovery. I was sort of wondering how Dubai would work out for him and if he could stop the Djuggernaut there on a fast court, once again.
Indian Wells starts Mar 7th and that might be pushing it if Fed keeps it in his schedule. I trust Roger Federer and his team not to do anything stupid regarding health and recover though. They have been at this a long time.

I expected some attrition to Novak’s point standing, but with Roger recovering and Andy Murray out for paternity time perhaps ’till Miami or even clay season starts – Novak likely will add to his point margin over Roger & Andy. Perhaps enough “lap” all the other players on Tour. Have more than double the points of anyone else. Has that been done in the Open Era??

Eventually, of course, Djokovic will see his margin over the field shrink a bit as it would be hard to outdo the “every Final from AO on” 2015 success story.

SG1, agreed. It’s nice to think that Federer doesn’t want to undermine his opponents. It is hella strange that he would’ve torn it the day after his semi.

A meniscus tear, especially if it’s not overly severe which seems to be the case, isn’t like an ACL or MCL tear. Chances are he was feeling some discomfort and then had it looked at after his tournament was over.

It took 34 years of age for Fed to be knocked out with a knee problem (hopefully temporarily). No complaints here. GOAT career. Rest up, enjoy the kids, and hopefully he can give Oly another shot before he is done.

@Chrisford1 – If Djoker wins Dubai, he would gain points as he was runner up last year. Fed is losing points from Dubai while Murray will be losing points from not playing Rotterdam, but he only made the QF last year so looks like he’ll stay #2.

I’m assuming both Fed and Murray will be back for Indian Wells, but if either skips that tournament it will affect the point standings.

Hi Gypsy,
sorry I could not talk on Sunday but I got stupidly drunk.I had a couple of beers during the match, then my neighbour come to congratulate ( and tease me- he loves Fed ) with me and we had some Armangiac and…anyway,I’m looking foward to this season (for obvious reason that Novak is doing well so far but I’m ready when he start loosing ) and watching some good matches – I always like IW/Miami period.

That must be very cool Jalep.I am a big fan of skiing. My father used to talk me of that guy Zubriggen and Ingemar Stenmark.I watch some of those clips on YT even now. And its cool that you are from Argentina too.

This is bad news for Đoko, since there will be no Federer to clean up the rest of the field to the finals, where Đoko awaits to blow him away (gently:)
This means Đoko will have to face different opponents which will be harder for him to beat, since we’ve all witnessed so many times that contrary to the hype, there was not much uncertainty to their matches, most of the times ot was obvious who will win from the get-go.

Now, there will be Gilles Simones and the like to shake things up a bit for Đoko. I’m sure that he is so confident in his matches against Fed that he would pick to play against him instead, say Simon, in a final showdown. Đoković knows Federer and knows how to play against him and what to expect from him. Other guys are not that consistent in winning or losing. That’s why I think Fed’s injury or retirement is bad news for Đoković.

Kriket im curious where did the little line through the capital D and the mark above the c come from in Novaks sirname,i thought it was dirt on my computer screen,till i looked again,im just interested is it something to do with name pronounciation??….

Nothing to do with pronunciation, it is how you spell Nole’s name in Serbian using latin letters that don’t exist in western alphabet. “Đ” stands for “Dj”and “Ć” stands for “CH” in order for his name to be pronounced properly in the west.

When novak beat roger..i couldn’t believe that’s the score was 61 62 in the first 2 sets..this is the great roger federer we talking about..not rafa who is still struggling with self belief and confidence..roger who’s form can challenge novak in every department[except mentally if it’s 5 setter]like he already proved it at uso..now to think of it..he maybe already felt something at that time but don’t want to make a fuss about it..like when he lost to rafa at IW a couple years ago in almost the same manner..and then after that we knew he had a back problem..now..not at all to demean or degraded novak’s win coz he’s more than capable of doing much more than that and with his crazy form right now,he deserved to win..but like ben said..it is strange that everything happened the day after gruelling match with novak…none the less i hope roger get well soon..

@GG..i don’t know why you kept believing some of the posters here who never tired of accusing you as a hater..i am a newbie here and even i can bet on my life that you’re one of the fair,balance and friendly and certainly not judgemental poster on this site..will you stop doubting yourself please..you’re already beautiful on the inside..although i don’t know bout your physical…which is doesn’t matter cause what’s you’ve got inside is really matter..oookkkk?

Tears to the meniscus, of which there are two in each knee, are a common injury for athletes. In 2014, striker Luis Suarez bounced back from a meniscal surgery within four weeks to score for Uruguay against England at the World Cup in Brazil.

Sean Curry, a specialist knee surgeon at London Orthopedic Clinic said recovery times can vary significantly.

“There’s a big difference between a small meniscal tear and a large one. It also depends on how the patient applies themselves to their recovery,” he said.

“Everyone is different.

Positive news follows and that For someone like Federer, who will have one-on-one physio and plenty of time to work hard, a return within a month is reasonable.”

Once the swelling has subsided and the muscles are back to full strength, Curry said the patient is “good to go.”

“[Federer’s age] might put him at slightly more risk, but he’s a consummate professional and is old enough to know that if he isn’t ready, he’ll just have to skip another tournament.”

Rafa will never win another grand slam nor make another final of one … His career was ruined by that damn wrist injury after Wimbledon plus appendix where he stupidly played instead of having his appendix removed ASAP … Dumb move
Once again most likely his stupid uncle who couldn’t lead a horse to water let alone coach tennis player
Look at Djoky his father doesn’t coach him … Nor do any relatives … Just a thought for Nadal 😂

[…] Federer underwent knee surgery on Tuesday and will be out at least a month forcing him out of Rotterdam and his title defense in Dubai. And he’ll likely miss Indian Wells and Miami which isn’t on his schedule. […]

@Pauly……I have read two different articles that made mention of Rafa’s knee surgery. I wondered if there was news of it at some point with the Spanish media. I know there was never a public announcement in any news over the internet. He did not play for several months at one time. I have always wondered if he didn’t have a “secret” surgery……stranger things have happened. Maybe the treatment on the knee with the blood procedure was taken out of context…..Who knows?? But I do think it is totally possible he could have had surgery…..they don’t have to disclose everything they do, do they?? Just saying…..

Something sinister going on with Roger’s injury?? If he started playing at 10 yrs old, for instance…… he has lots of tennis miles on him…24 yrs to be exact. I know he has the best athletic genes ever but age is creeping in on those genes. He also went deep at the AO and I’m confident his body was in a tired state….so I don’t know why all the fuss. He hurt his knee and he’s gonna get it fixed. Maybe he got mugged in the park and had to spring into quick action…lol
Let’s all hope he recovers quickly!! Still as a Rafa fan I do love to watch him play, especially when he plays Rafa. Some wonderful exciting matches between those two. Not ready for either of them to retire. These two are still a huge draw!

^^^^Yes, being injury free is something to crow about…..now if was playing as such. He played so long with a niggle here and there….and won matches under those circumstances. I am left scratching my head. I realize he’s older and all…….but he needs help ASAP!

Travis…I liked and like Steffi, ….but never understood the stupid think, what happened to Monica, never agreed with that…Monika was very, very talented..
I would still not compare Steffi’s attitude with Fed’s attitude…or I do not know, was to little..

Sorry, I was wrong!
At least, Stefi’s fans did not wildly cheer Monica’s double faults.
Fed fans are definitely crazier in their fear of their idol being surpassed. But it is happening.
In three years, both GS record and weeks at #1 record will not belong to Federer, and lot of deeply depressed Fed-fanatics will be quiet and completely disinterested in tennis!

I say soooo true! We will have to disagree on this one, but that’s OK. You have your opinion, I have mine. No need to chase me back to my cab or spew personal hate and claim jealousy syndrome when the only jealous and buthurt folks are Fed fanatic such as yourself (recent thrashings dished by Djoker, reversal of H2H, complaints of current lack of challenges to Djoker, etc.) Vaseline, my friend, vaseline is my only suggestion to you!

On another note, I’d like to address the unfortunate, although mild injury to your idol:
Roger is well known for being understanding and compassionate when other players have health issues/injuries and are forced to retire from their matches.
And like cruel fate would have it, he gets injured. Bummer! And also totally unfair…

Second of all, to break Federer’s weeks at number one, Djokovic needs to over 2 years worth of weeks to do so. And he needs a full 2 years worth of slams to surpass Federer’s 17. Djokovic is 28, closing in on 29. I have no idea why you and others are counting their chickens before they hatch.

I also don’t even remotely understand you’re pissyness towards Federer. What did he ever do to you? Now you’re cheering his injuries? I mean, for someone who appears to believe in karma, I’m not sure you understand how it works.

Federer fans cheer Novak’s double faults? Hmm, oh you mean the drunk NY crowd that one time? OK, cool. We have Djokovic fans who hate the animosity towards Novak due to his Serbian roots because they’re generalizing a whole people and blaming a tennis player. Entirely unfair and absolutely barbaric. So here you are generalizing an entire fanbase (literally millions of people, spanning larger than most nations) based on some drunk assholes from one night.

Calling someone who did not say anything to you an idiot (even if it were true) tells more about yourself than about that person.

I never insulted you personally, even though I don’t thing you’re the sharpest tool in this shed called Tennis X.

From this point on, I’ll try to respond more to your “knowledgeable analysis” on this site. As for your latest post to me, there is not much to respond. Only I suggest, find a way to blow some steam, a women perhaps or a man if you prefer…

@Kath
I find TV hilarious. Hope that doesn’t make me a “bad person.” ;)
@Ben
No, not just “drunk fans at the USOpen.” I have very bad memories of Andy’s double faults/errors being cheered at the O2.
And cow bells.

After US OPEN last year I was curios and went to read a few comments on Roger site (from his fans). The most comments were full of hate towards Nole and they were very happy about the way, the crowds behaved…perhaps you should have a look on that. I guess you are naiv or you pretend to be naiv.

Thanks for “having my back” in this virtual world. It’s nice to see that neutral and polite fans support my opinion and disagree with this fellow Pronin!

It looks like he used to blog on this site although, based on the archive (http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/author/benptennis) it appears he was not allowed to do so anymore since his last blog was more than two years ago. Based on the quality of his posting here, I must say I concur with the Tennis X decision.
However, I now know what he lost it when I mentioned Novak’s trashing of Federer – in the archive I linked above, I came across his December 2012 post entitled “Looking Through The Years: Federer Is Better than Ever”. Wow, just wow. He is a big time Fed worshipper. No wonder he felt an urge to attack me and be “internet knight” defending his idol Fed. Here is an ending quote of his post that is so sad that it becomes funny:
“People will always argue about whether or not Federer is the greatest. And there are a few things that detractors can latch on to. But in my mind, there’s nothing that can be said to definitively disprove it. Not when he produces his best tennis in 2012. It’s one thing to still love the game when you’re entering your twilight years. But to be the best? Only Federer.”

Upon reading this, I first vomited in my mouth a little and then started laughing. And I dared to speak negatively about “only Federer”… No wonder I received profanity-laden tirade from Ben.
Similarly, no wonder many posters here enjoy my posts and either stay unimpressed or disagree with Ben’s drivel.

I also scanned the commits below the mentioned post and loved the one by the poster named “roy”: Here it is:
(“looking through the years: the tennis-x federer worship is stronger than ever.
but we can do better. why not write more articles about federer? for instance, instead of 4 of the last 6 articles featuring a federer subject line, why not have 5 of the 6? or just rename the site federer-x?
i suppose he did make 3 slam finals this year, win the year end and finish no.1.
oh wait, that was djokovic.
December 9th, 2012 at 6:17 am”)

So based on all this, I would not call Ben Pronin an idiot (not my style) nor “an arrogant douchebag” (I reserve that nickname for Federer), but would question his tennis knowledge as well as general intelligence (Tennis X seems to have done the same). Also having his real full name as a nick on an internet forum is not very bright – anyone can google his name and see his real photo and real life info. I thought that the beauty of internet forums was in anonymity, but hey whatever rocks your boat (and Fed’s meniscus ;-)

Ben doesn’t appear to be an out-and-out Nole fan though. It appears he was a fed fan who jumped ship when it became clear Nole would win it all. In fact, that is precisely what one crazy fed fan did. Guess who ? Yup, that Ruan guy from the crazy ‘Ruan’s Federer blog’ who now apparently is a Nole fan. Funny world we live in.

I’ve been around for quite some time though i rarely post. Ben has always been Nole admirer. Always love to read his posts considering how Nole was looked upon here in 2008. Ben was one of the few unbiased posters.

Don’t really understand why so many people here think Rafa had knee surgery???

And going from being a fed-fan to a Nole fan? Morely likely that person wasn’t a fan in the first place. Probably just a person who likes someone who always wins. Otherwise not possible to trade them in like that.

Alexandra, it doesn’t matter whose fan Ben is or has been — though I’ve read Ben Pronin for a long-time here and will vouch for him being a Novak fan since at least 2009.

What matters when I’m choosing to read or not to read a tennis blog or website is that there are at least a handful of tennis fans that are not centered on one player. Ben is one of those. He can talk about many ATP and WTA players and offer much more than fan-boy gushing and mine is bigger than yours contests. He isn’t a card holding member of any one player. He doesn’t have tunnel vision.

Not every tennis fan is looking for a Novak, Rafa, or Federer fan site. But on the internet, that is basically what you get.

I do not worship any player, it’s a ridiculous notion to even consider. “Fed worshipper”, what a joke. Federer, and Djokovic, and Nadal are no gods. They’re just really good athletes.

You take offense to me writing about Federer during a time when he was 30+ and snatched the number 1 ranking away from a prime Djokovic. Another joke. I’m not allowed to be impressed with his feats? I’m not allowed to write about Federer, either? Just because Djokovic ended up having the better year (no doubt) and was the better player overall (no question)? That means I and all other writers are to only write about Djokovic, and ignore all others?

Sounds like worshiping to me. Again, you are a hypocrite.

I have no problem with people disagreeing with me. You can have your opinions and your favorites and go nuts. But you’re a troll and you somehow find it as a reason to gloat. Congratulations on being a professional troll, I guess?

Lodhi, I’m sorry I’m not an out-and-out Nole fan. This is tennis. This isn’t a team sport where you have your team and everyone else is the enemy. I do not owe my allegiance to one player. I will continue to root for the players I like even if they sometimes play each other.

This “Lodhi” keeps trying to call me out for whatever reason, but I’m not biting. I am no Fed worshipper either (whatever that means). He is my favorite player to watch, but enjoy the game first, and like / follow other players as well. From the tone of Lodhi’s post(s), the hypocritical shoe seems to fit on him/her better. A lot of hostility up here lately. Too bad…..
Ben , your post was spot on.

@Skeezer…..Haven’t you figured this out yet about Lodhi? It’s a crush….not sure if it’s a man crush or a girl crush? The jury is out on which one it is……LOL

Your Warriors kept their streak alive at home the other night…was not happy about that!! Oh, well just another game……all of my faves in all sports are going down…..need to get a new hobby I guess….this sports hobby keeps me too tore up!

@Skeezer….OMG I have not heard that…I will stop watching Thunder if KD leaves. That’s a bummer! Love to watch him……that is not good news for Okie fans…..but thanks for sharing. He would be an asset to any team. I wish we still had the 6th man…..the bearded one James Hardin!!